Tracking turnover in the Trump administration

The rate of turnover among senior level advisers to President Trump has generated a great deal of attention. Below, we offer four resources to help measure and contextualize this turnover. The first set of resources tracks turnover among senior-ranking advisers in the executive office of the president (which does not include Cabinet secretaries), whereas the second set of resources tracks turnover in the Cabinet.

Turnover on the president’s “A Team”

President Trump’s “A Team” turnover is 68% as of May 22, 2019

The following chart and table reflect turnover among the most influential positions within the executive office of the president. This data is compiled and tracked by Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who refers to this group of advisers as the president’s “A Team.” The list of positions that make up the “A Team” is based on National Journal “Decision Makers” editions, and Dunn Tenpas’s methodology is described in detail in a report she published in January 2018. The chart and table below will be updated as additional members of the “A Team” depart their positions. It is important to note the following:

Because the “A Team” is made up of members of the executive office of the president, it does not include Cabinet secretaries.

The count for Donald Trump’s “Year 3” is ongoing.

Each position on the “A Team” is only counted once. If multiple people hold and depart from the same position (e.g., communications director), only the initial departure is tracked/affects the turnover rate.

Summary and analysis of “A Team” turnover in the Trump administration

Set out below is a list of the senior level departures from the executive office of the president since the beginning of the Trump administration (each of the 65 “A Team” positions is only counted once toward the turnover rate, thus, this chart only includes the first person to hold/depart a given position). Highlighted text indicates a position that went through multiple instances of turnover; see below for more details.

Year

Position

Name

Prior Job

Nature of departure*

Date of departure announcement

Where to?

Successor

1

Senior Director for Africa, NSC

Robin Townley

Marines

Resigned Under Pressure (RUP)

2/10/2017

Sonoran Policy Group (lobbying and consulting)

Cyril Sartor

1

Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary, NSC

Keith Kellogg

Cubic Defense

Promoted

2/13/2017

Acting National Security Adviser

H.R. McMaster

1

National Security Adviser

Michael Flynn

Trump Campaign

RUP

2/13/2017

Unknown

H.R. McMaster

1

Deputy Chief of Staff

Katie Walsh

RNC

RUP

3/30/2017

America First Policies then RNC (7/21/17)

Kirstjen Nielsen

1

Deputy National Security Adviser

KT McFarland

TV analyst

Promoted

5/19/2017

Ambassadorial nomination withdrew/unknown

Dina Powell

1

Assistant to the President (AP) and Senior Counselor for Economic Initiatives

Dina Powell

Goldman Sachs

Promoted

5/19/2017

Deputy National Security Adviser

Unknown

1

AP and Communications Director

Michael Dubke

Black Rock Group

RUP

5/29/2017

Georgetown University lecturer, Black Rock Group

Anthony Scaramucci**

1

Press Secretary

Sean Spicer

RNC

RUP

7/21/2017

Worldwide Speakers Group

Sarah H. Sanders

1

Principal Deputy Press Secretary

Sarah H. Sanders

Trump Campaign

Promoted

7/21/2017

Press Secretary

Raj Shah

1

AP and Chief of Staff to the VP

Josh Pitcock

Capitol Hill

Resigned

7/28/2017

Oracle

Nick Ayers

1

Chief of Staff

Reince Priebus

RNC

RUP

7/31/2017

Law firm

John Kelly

1

AP and Director of Public Liaison

George Sifakis

Gov’t Relations

RUP

7/31/2017

Ideagen

Justin Clark

1

Senior Intelligence Director, NSC

Ezra Cohen-Watnick

U.S. Government (DIA)

RUP

8/2/2017

Oracle

Mike Barry

1

AP and Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President

Steve Bannon

Media

RUP

8/18/2017

Breitbart News/fired 1/9/18

Unknown

1

Deputy AP and Director of Presidential Advance

George Gigicos

Consulting

RUP

8/22/2017

Consulting

Robert L. Peede

1

National Security Adviser for VP

Andrea Thompson

House Homeland Security Committee (Michael McCaul R-TX)

Promoted

9/11/2017

Special Adviser in the Office of Policy Planning, U.S. State Department

Lieutenant General (Ret) Keith Kellogg, Jr.

1

AP and Director of Strategic Communications

Hope Hicks

Trump Organization

Promoted

9/12/2017

Communications Director**

Mercedes Schlapp

1

DAP and Deputy Communications Director and Research Director

Raj Shah

RNC

Promoted

9/12/2017

Principal Deputy Press Secretary

Unknown

1

Deputy AP and Director of Oval Office Operations

Keith Schiller

Trump Organization

RUP

9/20/2017

Private Security Consulting

Jordan Karem

1

Deputy AP and Deputy White House Counsel

Greg Katsas

Law Firm

Resigned

11/28/2017

Federal judge, DC Circuit

Uttam Dhillon

1

AP and Director of Communications, Office of Public Liaison

Omarosa Manigault

Reality Television

RUP

12/13/2017

Celebrity Big Brother

Unknown

1

Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Director of Budget Policy

Paul Winfree

Heritage Foundation

Resigned

12/15/2017

Heritage Foundation

Lance Leggitt

2

AP and Deputy Chief of Staff

Rick Dearborn

U.S. Senate staff

Resigned

12/23/17 resignation announced, departed 3/13/2018

The Cypress Group

Unknown

2

AP and Staff Secretary

Rob Porter

U.S. Senate Staff

RUP

2/7/2018

Unknown

Derek Lyons

2

Senior Director of Legislative Affairs, NSC

Daniel Greenwood

Marines

Promoted

2/9/2018

Lateral move to Deputy AP and Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs

Paul J. Miller

2

AP and Director of Presidential Personnel

John DeStefano

U.S. House of Representatives Staff

Promoted

2/9/2018

AP and Counsel to the President overseeing Public Liaison, Personnel and Political Affairs

Sean Doocey (DAP)

2

AP for Intergovernmental and Technology Initiatives

Reed Cordish

Real Estate

Resigned

2/16/2018

Partner, Cordish Companies

Brooke L. Rollins

2

AP and Director of the National Economic Council

Gary Cohn

Goldman Sachs

Resigned

3/6/2018

Unknown

Larry Kudlow

2

CIA Director

Mike Pompeo

Member, House of Representatives (R-KS)

Promoted

3/13/2018

Secretary of State

Gina Haspel

2

DAP and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

Justin Clark

Trump Campaign

Promoted

3/13/2018

Director, White House Office of Public Liaison

Douglas Hoelscher

2

Deputy CIA Director

Gina Haspel

CIA

Promoted

3/13/2018

CIA Director

Vaughan Bishop

2

AP and Director for Strategic Initiatives

Chris Liddell

WME/IMG

Promoted

3/19/2018

Deputy Chief of Staff

Unknown

2

AP for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism

Thomas Bossert

Atlantic Council

RUP

4/10/2018

Unknown

Doug Fears

2

DAP and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination

Carlos Diaz-Rosillo

Harvard University

Promoted

6/19/2018

Senior Deputy Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities

Unknown

2

DAP and and Senior Adviser to the Chief of Staff

Sean Cairncross

RNC

Promoted

Unknown (nominated for MCC 1/5/18)

Millennium Challenge Corp. (if confirmed)

Unknown

2

Deputy Director, National Economic Council and International Economic Affairs

* Author’s Note: The departure status was difficult to determine in some cases because media reports were often at odds with an individual’s claim that they were resigning. In the end, I decided to create the category “resigned under pressure,” which I believe captures the general sentiment at the time of their departure. Highlighted text indicates a position that went through multiple instances of turnover; see below for more details.

** Author’s note: Anthony Scaramucci was Communications Director for 11 days. He was succeeded by Hope Hicks, who resigned Feb. 28, 2018. On July 5, 2018, Bill Shine was appointed to the White House Communications Director role with a slightly different official title, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications; he subsequently resigned on March 8, 2019. The position remains vacant.

Sources: Multiple news websites, LinkedIn, WhiteHouse.gov, and other government websites.

Serial turnover within the Trump “A Team”

The turnover data above include only the president’s initial team of advisers and when one departs, the position falls out of the sample. One of the limitations of this approach is that it does not consider multiple departures within a single position, a common phenomenon within the Trump team. Set out below are the “A Team” positions that have had more than two occupants.

32% of President Trump’s “A Team” departures have undergone serial turnover as of May 22, 2019

Position

Original

Replacement 1

Replacement 2

Replacement 3

Replacement 4

Chief of Staff

Reince Priebus

John Kelly

Mick Mulvaney (acting)

Deputy Chief of Staff*

Katie Walsh

Kirstjen Nielsen

Zachary Fuentes

Emma Doyle

Chief of Staff to the VP

Josh Pitcock

Nick Ayers

Marc Short

Communications Director*

Michael Dubke

Anthony Scaramucci

Hope Hicks

Bill Shine

Not yet named

Principal Deputy Press Secretary

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Raj Shah

Hogan Gidley

Director of Public Liaison

George Sifakis

Justin Clark

Timothy Pataki

Director of Oval Office Operations

Keith Schiller

Jordan Karem

Madeleine Westerhout

Deputy AP and Deputy White House Council**

Greg Katsas

Uttam Dhillon

Michael Purpura

National Security Adviser

Michael Flynn

HR McMaster

John Bolton

Deputy National Security Adviser

KT McFarland

Dina Powell

Nadia Schadlow

Mira Ricardel

Charles Kupperman

Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary, NSC

Keith Kellogg

Frederick Fleitz

Joan Virginia O’Hara

Senior Director of Intelligence, NSC

Ezra Cohen Watnick

Michael Barry (departed July 2018 after McMaster)

Not yet named

Deputy Director, National Economic Council and International Economic Affairs

* Author’s note: For the purposes of this study, we count Michael Dubke as the first communications director, since Sean Spicer was serving in a temporary capacity until the Trump administration filled the job with a permanent candidate.

** Author’s note: Notice that there are multiple deputies under the chief of staff and White House counsel. The data reflect an attempt to track just a single deputy position and note the successor. However, there is minimal publicly available information on presidential staffing. It is also the case that a new chief of staff may not have a “first among equals” deputy chief of staff, such that the role may have changed since the original occupant. The same is true for White House Counsel. While Greg Katsas may have been the “first among equals” among the Deputy White House Counsel positions in 2017, the role may have changed under the new White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone.

Turnover in the president’s cabinet

The chart and table below are dedicated to tracking turnover in the Cabinet. They will also be updated as additional turnover occurs. Unlike the trackers above dedicated to the president’s “A Team,” these resources look at every departure from the president’s cabinet, even if multiple people have occupied that position.

Notice of updated methodology

The current table of Cabinet-level turnover has been updated from a previous version, accessible here for reference, that was based on a different methodology; this change was made on May 21, 2019. This newer table provides data going back to President Reagan (1981) and adheres to a strict definition of Cabinet by only including the heads of the executive departments. While presidents often promote a position like EPA administrator to Cabinet-level status, these appointments are ad hoc, can be short-lived, and make it difficult to compare over time. Given the variability, we only include Senate-confirmed Cabinet members who are in the presidential line of succession, since this allows for greater consistency and standardization. More information on this update is available in a piece on Brookings’s FixGov blog.

Additionally, since Reagan’s presidency, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security have been added to the list (increasing from 13 to 15 positions). Year of departure is determined by the date a Cabinet member announced they were resigning, regardless of their final end date.

Summary and analysis of Cabinet departures in the Trump administration

Set out below is a list of departures from the president’s Cabinet since the beginning of the Trump administration.

Year

Position

Name

Prior Job

Nature of Departure

Date of Departure Announcement

Where to?

Successor

1

Secretary of Homeland Security

John F. Kelly

U.S. Marine Corps

Promoted

7/28/2017

White House Chief of Staff

Kirstjen Nielsen

1

Secretary of Health and Human Services

Tom Price

Member of the House

RUP

9/29/2017

Jackson Healthcare

Alex Azar

2

Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson

Exxon

RUP

3/13/2018

Unknown

Mike Pompeo

2

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

David Shulkin

U.S. Government (VA)

RUP

3/28/2018

Unknown

Robert Wilkie

2

Attorney General

Jeff Sessions

U.S. Senator

RUP

11/7/2018

Unknown

William Barr

2

Secretary of Defense

Jim Mattis

Retired

Protest Resignation (PR)

12/20/2018

Unknown

Patrick Shanahan (Acting)

2

Secretary of Interior

Ryan Zinke

Member of the House

RUP

12/15/2018

Artillery One

David Bernhardt

3

Secretary of Homeland Security

Kirstjen Nielsen

Deputy Chief of Staff

RUP

4/7/2019

Unclear

Kevin McAleenan (acting)

Sources: Agency websites, presidential library websites, and various news sources. Note: Year of departure corresponds to date of departure announcement. Thanks to Elaine Kamarck and Nick Zeppos, who contributed to the initial data collection for this section.

Author

Viewed as a leading, independent voice in the domestic policymaking sphere, the Governance Studies program at Brookings is dedicated to analyzing policy issues, political institutions and processes, and contemporary governance challenges. Our scholarship identifies areas in need of reform and proposes specific solutions to improve governance worldwide, but with a particular emphasis on the United States.